THE STEWART SETTLEMENT AT TAURANGA.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4297, 29 December 1874, Page 3

THE STEWART SETTLEMENT AT TAURANGA.

The memorandum of agreement between the Hon. Maurice O'Korke and Mr. George Vesey Stewart, as respects the special land settlement at Tauranga, appears in the Auckland Provincial Gazette. The conditions set forth are, that the land known as the Katikati Block at Tauranga, consisting of 10,000 acres, shall be surveyed at the expense of the Government ; that Mr. Stewart is to select and organise a party of farmers—the whole being married men with families—having an adequate capital to work the land. That in consideration of Mr. Stewart organising the party, ho shall be the leader, which shall entitle him to 500 acres of land, with forty acres for his wife and the same area for each of his children ; that each party of the age of eighteen years and upwards, shall be entitled to select and occupy forty acres, with an additional twenty acres in respect of each child between the ages of twelve and eighteen : provided that not more than 300 acres shall be held and occupied by any number of persons forming one household. That lots shall be drawn to determine the order in which the several persons shall be entitled to select the land to which they are respectively entitled. On a selection being made, the selector shall be entitled to receive from the Waste Lands Commissioner a certificate in -writing, authorising him to ocoupy the land selected under the provisions and conditions of the agreement. At the expiration of three years Mr. Stewart, and every other occupier, shall be entitled to a Crown grant of the laud, on his proving to the satisfaction of the Waste Lands Commissioner that he has, during the whole of the previous three years, been in the bona fide occupation of the land by continuous residence thereon, and that at least one-fifth part thereof is under cultivation. The holder of a certificate of occupation shall also he entitled to a Crown grant at any time prior to the expiration of three years, on proof to the satisfaction of the Waste Lands Commissioner that the whole of the land comprised in the certificate is fenced and cultivated, and a dwelling-house erected thereon. If Mr. Stewart with his family, and at least thirty families, shall not arrive in one ship at Auckland or Tauranga, in pursuance and part fulfilment of this agreement, before the Ist day of Jauuary, 1876, the agreement shall be void. That if such thirty families shall arrive as by this agreement required, before the Ist day of January, 1876, they shall be entitled at once to select their laud, and the settlement shall be deemed to. have been formed uuder this agreement; but the remainder of the said block of land of 10,p00 acres shall be available until the Ist of January, 1876, but not afterwards.